BP Oil Spill Denial: What Will It Take to Get Us to Change?

More than a month after BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the oil continues to flow from the Gulf of Mexico to pollute the shores of America’s once-beautiful coastlines. The other week I saw a report put out by the University of Adelaide Environmental Institute that ranked countries around the world by their environmental impact. They measured total degradation based on forest loss, habitat loss, fertilizer use, water pollution, carbon emissions, and other factors. The U.S. was ranked number two, second worst, beaten only by Brazil.

But that was before the worst oil spill in American history.

It’s almost too much to fathom, isn’t it? The gushing geyser of crude oil that has no end in sight, with flimsy, all-too-human efforts to staunch the bleeding when a jugular vein of the Earth has been cut. How long will it take to clean up? How long will the toxic effects last? What can we do? Send pet hair and panty hose to the Gulf of Mexico?

Already the blame game has started, the official criminal investigations and finger-pointing. But that’s not going to help what was left of marine life in the Gulf before the spill (remember the quaint little dead zone down there? It all seems so small now). It’s not going to help the fisherpeople, the tourism industry, and more important, the people who just live down there and now find themselves covered in oil, and not in a good way.

Obama is calling for a clean-energy bill in response to the crisis. Cynics and conservatives are still stalling and blaming. We watch the back-and-forth like a tennis match, solidly seated with our favorite players. Meanwhile, the devastation is almost too big to absorb.

What will it take to get us to change our behavior? Our world view that lets us feel OK about being the worst, or at best second worst, environmental destroyers in the history of our planet? Is that something to be proud of, America? Really, you can’t blame Obama for this whole situation. He was brave enough to think he could step into the toughest job on earth and fix things. Let’s all take a moment to be thankful we don’t have his job.

I think it’s a time for uniting. The real time for change is now. Allowing our more primitive anger to rule our responses is not going to stop the bleeding. It’s not going to make us better citizens of the world. It’s not going to make the spill disappear.

We all want to help. We are a generous people. We give money to call-in TV fundraising specials. We consider ourselves a people of faith, freedom, and independence. We consider ourselves leaders. And yet, we often allow those good actions and comfortably superior feelings to let us go on living our lives as if nothing has changed and our daily behavior doesn’t really matter.

6 Responses to BP Oil Spill Denial: What Will It Take to Get Us to Change?

Maria, people keep talking about the Gulf oil spill. This is a misnomer as spills, like hurricanes, are finite.
The situation we face is an oil LEAK, which, if we’re realistic, no one knows how to stop right now.

Well, Maria, you’ve got one convert–me. I became interested in organic food about a year ago when a local co-op moved into my neighborhood and I found out just how good it was. I read Organic Manifesto. Yes, the way we live our lives does matter, and I will do everything I can to spread the word. –Thanks for all you do!

A “clean energy bill” isn’t going to significantly curb the global demand for oil, and Murphy’s law will always be at play.

Meanwhile our national debt is set to overtake the output of the entire economy, two wars are still going on on Obama’s watch, Guantanamo is still open on Obama’s watch, and his administration granted the oil rig at fault with a safety award.

And what do you want? More burden on the economy and more blind dedication to a failed leader.

Until everyone of us demand clean renewable energy legislation be passed, and subsidies to oil and coal companies be stopped, each of us have personal responsibility for the oil spill. Email and call your senators and representatives. We need to take our civic responsibilities as serious as our healthy, organic gardening. Then, we can feel peace and know we are doing all we can.

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By day I'm chairman and CEO of one of the largest independent publishers left in America. By night I'm simply M.O.M. (which stands for Mean Old Mom). I'm a writer, cook, organic enthusiast, romance novel lover, and major music fan who does yoga. Read more

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